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Homeschool Den / Outdoor Fun / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 20, 2014 · Last modified June 24, 2015
This game instantly became a family and friend favorite! Kick the Can is cross between hide-and-go-seek and tag with a “jail” thrown in for those who are captured! This was such an amazingly fun game to play in the woods where there are places to hide everywhere! This is a great game for 4-7 players. To begin, designate a place to be the “jail.” Not far away, the can should...
My sister’s family also homeschools, so we take advantage of the pre-summer season prices to spend a week together. We met up with my Dad & step-Mom, my sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew at the Outer Banks. The weather had called for temperatures in the low 70s last week, but once we arrived the forecast changed. We had several days between 85-88 degrees. Perfect for the beach! I slathered the...
Nature / Outdoor Fun / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 17, 2014 · Last modified April 16, 2015
I consider myself pretty outdoorsy. I love to hike, backpack and go camping. I love learning the names of the lizards, snakes, bugs and birds in our area. But I had never, ever gone fishing. For some reason it seemed mysterious. Hard. Something only real “fishermen” did. So when I heard that our local park was offering a free fishing workshop for kids, we signed the kids up. The ranger...
Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 2, 2014 · Last modified February 19, 2017
Like much of the east coast, we had a huge amount of rain on Wednesday. We had just finished our writing workshop, when ED looked out the window and saw that our tiny creek was teeming with water. The kids rushed to get their swim suits on, I got on my big rubber boots and we went down to check things out. The little trickle of our creek was impressive!...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 25, 2014 · Last modified December 2, 2020
Are you looking for free Nature Scavenger Hunt printables? We have several fun options! Every spring, as the weather gets nicer and nicer we spend more and more time outdoors. We’ve been doing this scavenger hunt for years. I know we’re not alone because this printable has gotten well over 50,000 downloads since I first made it years ago!! We found a lot of cool critters that very first year we did...
I took the camera out to captures some snow scenes out in our yard and the woods behind our house. It was peaceful and very pretty! Better to focus on that than tomorrow’s surgery, right?! These photos must tickle my friends who are having 80, 90 and 100 degree temperatures right now, right?!
Like so much of the east coast, we spent a lot of time today digging out from the huge snowfall. ED is the youngest and often the hardest worker! She was out there shoveling (and playing) for hours. Boomer said, “No way I’m going down those stairs.” So, we created a potty spot for her, shoveling a path into the back yard from the garage. It’s snowing again right now...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 10, 2013 · Last modified May 22, 2017
The ice storm that hit our area was incredibly beautiful. Our house is nestled down in the woods and the trees were so pretty. The kids and I spent a lot of time outside taking pictures: DD took this picture: The evergreens looked pretty too: The holly bushes looked so striking with their bright red berries!! We had to include this last picture because it looked so crazy that the...
I was born in Seattle, Washington and both sides of my family are from there. In fact, many of my mom’s relatives were among the first settlers in the region! One of Hubby’s best friends now lives in Seattle. They planned a hiking-reunion weekend and they spent several days hiking around the beautiful mountains out to the west of Seattle. The scenery was so beautiful, I definitely hope to plan...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 23, 2013
I remember reading once that you are never supposed to write about not blogging. “Boring!” someone said. I still feel the need to apologize or explain the infrequent posts, though! We’re still in summer mode and while I think I’ve more-or-less hammered out our fall semester and have been busy browsing and purchasing books, scoping out cool science experiments and activities, making some worksheets and games for our units, I’ve felt...
Health / Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Here in the U.S. we hear about the importance of staying out of the sun during peak hours and using sun screen. Over in Australia, there was a HUGE campaign to get people to protect themselves from the sun. “Slip, Slop, Slap” was an advertisement we saw ALL the time on TV. Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat. The kids in our small town...
Nature / Outdoor Fun / Recipes / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 5, 2013
It was dreadfully hot, but after dropping LD off at his day camp the girls and I headed off to a u-pick farm. In just an hour and a half we picked 4 huge containers of blueberries!! I love that this farm doesn’t spray their berries. What did we do with 20 pounds of blueberries? Well, we made 9 jars (3 batches) of blueberry jam… It’s easy to do you just...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Outdoor Fun / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 28, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
1. It allows you to open your eyes to the beauty around you 2. It puts the focus on love, family and being together 3. It lets you try new things The kids went kayaking for the first time last week. 4. It’s soothing, relaxing and you can switch off. 5. It allows you to experience someone else’s passions Hubby and LD played endless rounds of card games...
Homeschool Den / Mom Stories / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 16, 2013 · Last modified April 10, 2016
Let’s face it, my life, especially when you look at the blog, revolves around the kids and homeschooling. I spend a lot of time preparing for homeschooling; the kids and I spend time working on their schoolwork, projects and activities; I blog about homeschooling; and I’m even (gulp) trying to write a book — not about zombies (though I did meet a woman at LD’s Parkour (sport’s) class who writes...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
To read more about us CLICK HERE.
Click on the image to find out more about the units and packets we have available.
This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
Click the image to check out our packets on Earth Science, Rocks and Minerals, the Atmosphere, Weather, Energy and More!
Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
